California's Most Potent Words: Abortion and Palin

California's Most Potent Words: Abortion and Palin

With recent polls showing a dead heat between California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican nominee Carly Fiorina,
Luisita Lopez Torregrosa in the
IHT
predicts the results "will most rigidly test who holds sway: Sarah Palin or Emily’s List." And indeed, even as Boxer and Fiorina discuss more immediately pressing issues like jobs, two significant themes in the race thus far have been the hot-button terms
abortion
and
Sarah Palin
, not necessarily in that order. It will be interesting to count how many times those words come up during their first debate tomorrow.

The presence of the abortion issue in this race may speak to how close it is. Boxer, known for her strong pro-choice stance, has charged that Fiorina’s support for overturning
Roe v. Wade
is "
out of touch with Californians
," a statement that
polls suggest is true
. More recently, Boxer’s campaign released a
Web ad
saying, "Fiorina would make abortion a crime."
NRO
’s Kathryn Jean Lopez suggested that the ad’s use of the "scarlet A-word" instead of a euphemism was "
rhetorically unusual
" and quoted the forever-quotable political analyst Larry Sabato: "I think Boxer fully realizes what a close race she is in." The Web ad also prompted a
San Francisco Chronicle
blog to wonder whether "the fact that Boxer is dropping the abortion card BEFORE the Labor Day sprint begins" might mean
that polls are causing desperation
in Boxer’s camp. (Abortion has also come up in the context of attacks on Boxer-George Will has written two columns this summer criticizing the senator's support for partial-birth abortion, suggesting that "
it is
theoretically
impossible to fashion an abortion position significantly more extreme than Boxer’s
.")

Advertisement

And now for that other ever-popular phrase,
Sarah Palin
. If you squinted, you might think Boxer were running against the former Alaska governor, who endorsed Fiorina, rather than the former Hewlett-Packard CEO herself.
As this
Chronicle
piece points out
, in an atmosphere in which "candidates are finding it simpler to say what they won't do instead of what they will," the going-negative strategy has even carried over into how often the candidates say their opponents’ names. Fiorina says "Barbara Boxer" frequently, trying to tap into voter anger with the three-term incumbent, while Boxer avoids saying Fiorina’s name.

An aside, while we’re on the topic of controversial names: There’s another one that’s been uttered a lot recently in races across the country.
Politico
points out the toxicity of
Nancy Pelosi
, who’s long been a predictable target for Republicans and is now being attacked by members of her own party. "Three vulnerable Democrats from conservative-oriented districts are already running TV ads spotlighting their defiance of Pelosi,"
Politico
points out.

And then there’s the recent case of Rep. Bobby Bright, a Blue Dog Democrat from a conservative district in Alabama. When asked whether he would again support Pelosi in a run for speaker, Bright offered a host of reasons why the issue might never come up. The last was paraphrased by a reporter present as, "
Heck, she might even get sick and die
." The line
prompted laughter
from his audience.

Libby Copeland is a writer in New York and a Slatecontributor. She was previously a Washington Post reporter and editor for 11 years. She can be reached at libbycopeland@gmail.com.